Only the faces and hands of the saints in Denshchikov’s icons
are painted on canvas, everything else is made from millions of linen
knots. The artist doesn’t use any tools, like needles or crochets
to make the knots, all the patterns and details are created directly
by hand. The material used for these incredible artworks is created
by the artist himself: he takes a piece of pure linen cloth (a fabric
associated with Orthodox Faith), soaks it in water and takes it apart
one string at a time. He uses linen threads between 0.5 and 2 meters
long and works between 3 and 6 months on a single 40×50 cm icon.
It might sound like a long time, but let’s not forget one of these
things numbers up to nine million tiny knots, each made by hand.